Asuu President Ogunyemi Speaks On Union Ending Strike

From right: Former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Nasir Isa and President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, says the ongoing Asuu strike would be suspended when the federal government addresses the union’s “minimalist proposal.”

“The strike will end when government addresses our minimalist proposal send to it. We have reduced what we proposed drastically, what we propose now is a far cry from where we started,” Daily Trust quoted him as saying.

“So, government must address this proposal that we have before it in order to pave way for the suspension of the strike action. Unless it does so, we cannot go back to our members to prevail on them to consider other positions than where we are.”

Concise News had reported that the federal government said it had released N163 billion to public universities from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in a bid to end the strike.

Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige made this known while speaking with newsmen after a closed-door reconciliatory meeting with the leadership of the union on Monday in Abuja.

Ngige said: “Government has released about N163 billion from TETFund account to universities. So, we have gotten some substantial agreement in most of the areas of the agreement.

“Most of the issues are being resolved, so they are going to go back to their members and present government’s offer to their council.”

John Andah is a fine-grained journalist. He has been a member of the fourth estate for nearly a decade. He loves the smell of a good lead, and has a penchant for finding out something nobody else knows. John is Snr Asst Editor at Concise News.